How last season ended for the Nebraska volleyball team — just three points away from winning the national championship — helped fuel the program during the offseason.
Stanford beat Nebraska 15-12 in the fifth set of the 2018 national championship match. Husker coach John Cook used that loss as a motivation to be a better coach this season, hoping he could train the players to play better in the biggest moments.
Nebraska begins a new NCAA Tournament on Friday with a first-round match against Ball State, and the goal is always the same: six straight wins for a national title.
And while the motivation of coming up just short in 2018 may have taken a step back during the season when Nebraska was always preparing for its next opponent, that title match loss always remained on the players’ mind.
“It’s definitely been something that we’ve had in the back of our minds,” said Husker junior Lauren Stivrins. “And that picture of Stanford winning is still hanging up in our locker room, so we see it pretty much every day, and we still use it as motivation.
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“I don’t think it’s something that we forget about. We might have lost track of that a little bit in the beginning of the Big Ten season, but we’ve definitely turned it around and this team is competing harder than they ever had, so I’m really excited to see what we can do in the tournament.”
The players got another reminder of how last season ended on Sunday. The NCAA selection show began with highlights of Stanford and Nebraska playing in the title match.
“Yeah, it didn’t feel good,” said Lexi Sun. “I guess it was just another reminder.”
“I think the girls probably didn’t like that,” Cook said.
Not all young: While it’s true that Nebraska has two freshman starters and no seniors on the roster, this group isn’t without players with NCAA Tournament experience.
“This year’s group we’ve got four players who have won a national championship (in 2017),” Cook said. “We’ve got a whole group of players who played for one last year. So they know what this takes, and I told our first-year players that they’ve got some great examples to follow, and these guys know what it takes this time of year. So I’m going to count on those guys to show us the way.”
Big Ten schools make coaching changes: Rutgers and Ohio State each fired their coaches following the regular season.
Fired Ohio State coach Geoff Carlson had a 235-170 record in 12 seasons at the school, but fared pretty well against Nebraska, with four wins against the Huskers in league play. Ohio State moved into a new arena this season.
Rutgers dismissed CJ Werneke after 12 seasons.
Stanford star returned: Kathryn Plummer, the two-time national player of the year for Stanford, is back playing after missing several weeks with an injury. Stanford only lost once in the 10 matches Plummer did not play and is ranked No. 3.
Former Huskers has good season: Sami Slaughter, who transferred from Nebraska to South Dakota after last season, had a good season for the Coyotes.
Slaughter, a Harrisburg, South Dakota, native, ranks third in the Summit League in kills per set (3.60). She earned first-team all-conference honors. South Dakota has a 27-2 record but just missed out on qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. The Coyotes are playing in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship.
First-time in: Northern Kentucky and Wright State are the teams in the tournament for the first time.
Worth quoting: “We’re psyched up, and it’s time to party.” — Cook, during a news conference on Thursday. Stivrins, seated near the coach, giggled at that comment, and may have had a slight eye roll.